LAS VEGAS – Rodrigo Nascimento’s UFC run started out promising enough, but then he hit a rough patch.
Nascimento punched his ticket to the UFC on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019 with a first-round submission. Less than a year later, he submitted Don’Tale Mayes in his promotional debut.
But in October 2020, he ran into a red-hot Chris Daukaus, who knocked him out in 45 seconds. It was the first loss of Nascimento’s career. He rebounded nicely with a TKO of Alan Baudot in July 2021, but that win was overturned to a no contest due to a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency violation.
Nascimento eventually was cleared of that USADA infringement and now has a Therapeutic Use Exemption for Ritalin, which he has said he’s been taking for a decade and said he always has declared. For now, though, that Baudot fight remains a no contest instead of a win, which might make Nascimento all the more eager to get his hand raised Saturday.
Nascimento (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) is a slight underdog in his heavyweight fight against Tanner Boser (20-8-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC) on the UFC Fight Night 210 main card at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“I’m really excited. Boser’s a tough opponent – I know that,” Nascimento said at Wednesday’s media day. “But I know I have all the tools to beat him. I can beat him on the ground, I’m a good striker. He knows I’m a complete fighter. I know I’m a big problem for him.
“… I know I can fight everywhere … it doesn’t matter for me. I know one time in the fight, I’ll find a way to beat him.”
Many fighters might be discouraged by the turn of events experienced by Nascimento, but he appears to be keeping his head up about the opportunity he has Saturday and not looking back in anger at what went down with his loss to Daukaus and the subsequent win that now isn’t a win on his record.
“I don’t think it’s a new beginning,” he said. “I just have to keep working. I’ve done a lot of things to get here, and this is a new fight. Let’s go do this.”
Check out the full pre-fight interview with Nascimento in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 210.
